How to best animate a licking tongue?
That method works extremely well for all sorts of short bendy things, tails, tentacles, tongues, you name it. Only having 3 controllers for all of it makes animating a snap, too. 



I just want to add, that a couple of modifiers in combination with the mesh are useful: 
First, a Subdivision Surface Modifier, to make sure there is enough geometry there to be deformed and after the Armature Modifier a Corrective Smooth Modifier to resolve any warping and breaking that the Bendy Bone might inflict on the surface. They are prone to doing that.



Minor Update: you can make the rig a lot faster by making the armature move the lo-poly model and adding the Subdivision Surface Modifier AFTER the Armature Modifier. Sorry about that.